The industrialization which started in 1953 had been completely disrupted by the chronic
civil war and closed-door policy of successive communism/socialism regimes. Since 1993
Cambodia has embraced a market economy heavily dependent on foreign capital and foreign
markets. As a result, the economy has experienced high economic growth rate yet with low
linkage to domestic economy. The government’s Rice Export Policy introduced in 2010 to
diversify its economy, maximize its value added and job creation was highly evaluated to
bring those benefits under the environment of weak governance. Whether similar kind of such
a policy for other sectors is successful remains to be seen.